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MarcoStyle did a great job of outlining this problem in a very recent video(unfortunately he has since decided to remove it).
One of the main problems with this otherwise awesome game is that there is too much randomness, gear items are too dependent on the mercy of the RNG.
Once you've reached max gear score/are at end game; when it feels like 98% of the loot a player gets is rather useless, it leads loss of motivation to continue playing and disappointment in not having greater control over the continued advancement of their character/fine-tuning builds. This is a major problem that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
I believe the fix is rather simple; remove the re-calibration limit on items. Honestly; that's it, just that one 'simple' change. Allow us to re-calibrate every single thing on an item rather than just one or just two(as with classified sets in Division 1). The rules governing item re-calibration should not be changed, I feel they are perfect(or extremely close to it) as they are. Keep it so that only items of the same type can be re-calibrated(Gloves to Gloves, SMGs to SMGs, Backpacks to Backpacks, Rifles to Rifles, etc), also keep that only the same category of attribute can be re-calibrated(Offensive to Offensive, Defensive to Defensive and Utility to Utility), same thing with talents(Active to Active, Passive to Passive). The only other change that would really be needed is the removal/adjustment of the re-calibration score to account/allow for more than one thing on an item being able to be re-calibrated. The limit for how high an individual stat can go should remain in place and be unchanged.
For example, you have a pretty awesome Petrov Defense Group Ops Armor chest piece. It's gear-score 500, has rolled with an active talent, two offensive attributes(Crit Chance and Crit Damage) and two defensive attributes(Bonus Armor and Total Health). You take the item to the re-calibration station and make several changes. The active talent(let's go with Berserk for the sake of this example) you change to Unstoppable Force. For the attributes; you change Crit Chance to Weapon Damage and Crit Damage to Headshot Damage, You decide to keep the Bonus Armor as is but change Total Health to Total Armor. So now you have a Petrov Defense Group Chest Piece that is PERFECT for your built and exactly what you wanted. Unstoppable Force as the active Talent, Weapon Damage and Headshot Damage as the Offensive Attributes and Bonus Armor and Total Armor as the Defensive Attributes. Of course the item can still be re-calibrated and improved on as you find items with higher and higher rolls.
The current price/resource cost scaling should remain the same and be unchanged. No reason to change it, would only make it needlessly more complicated. Like for example, changing it to scaling off each individual category rather than total re-calibrations(as it is now).
This would also go a long way into giving crafting resources more value. Currently, besides re-calibration there's really no reason to concern yourself with crafting resources other than creating items to donate to projects here and there. Crafting should always be relevant and viable option, in any game that includes it. That brings us to the second part of this one-two punch in giving players more 'control.' Please allow us to upgrade our crafting bench to max gear score and make 500(current cap) items(other than just exotics) and allow crafted items to be re-calibrated/used in re-calibration. Frankly, crafting right now seems a bit useless, which is a shame. These suggestions would solve that.
Lastly, if the max gear score is ever raised, there needs to be a way to upgrade the current gear/builds we've worked so hard on collected and fine-tuning or it'll leave many players with the feeling like all their time and effort was wasted and worthless. Of course this process should require super rare and difficult to get materials, like for example; new material only dropped by the end bosses on Heroic Missions. This would also give Heroic missions alot more replayablity. To be honest; after you complete them once for the personal challenge, there really isn't a reason to replay them; it is much more efficient to play Hard or Challenging missions for loot, for example.
But now what about the 'loot chase' if these changes were to be made? It's still there, nice and healthy. Players will always be chasing after those super high-rolled items, even more so with the new freedom with re-calibration. The loot chase will lose it's current downside; players will no longer feel that they are too heavily at the mercy of RNG to get that 'perfect item'(which currently; you have like a one in two million chance of actually getting and that's with STILL needing to run that item through re-calibration to change only one thing). With the new re-calibration, players will be constantly hungry for that next high rolled item(which are a whole lot easier to get instead of that 'perfect piece' they need for their build) so they can be continually upgrading their builds. No longer will players feel discouraged at never finding that perfect item they need for their build, no loss of motivation to play, no feelings of 'What's the point? 98% of the loot that drops for me is junk I either sell or decon' The new freedom with re-calibration would mean that potentially everything that drops could be useful in some way to a player's planned builds.
This is a great game, thank you Massive/Ubisoft for all of your hard work and dedication to giving us such an awesome game, and for always being willing to listen to and consider feedback from the community, it's what makes the Division so great. I feel the above suggested changes would turn Division 2 from a great game into an amazing one.
One of the main problems with this otherwise awesome game is that there is too much randomness, gear items are too dependent on the mercy of the RNG.
Once you've reached max gear score/are at end game; when it feels like 98% of the loot a player gets is rather useless, it leads loss of motivation to continue playing and disappointment in not having greater control over the continued advancement of their character/fine-tuning builds. This is a major problem that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
I believe the fix is rather simple; remove the re-calibration limit on items. Honestly; that's it, just that one 'simple' change. Allow us to re-calibrate every single thing on an item rather than just one or just two(as with classified sets in Division 1). The rules governing item re-calibration should not be changed, I feel they are perfect(or extremely close to it) as they are. Keep it so that only items of the same type can be re-calibrated(Gloves to Gloves, SMGs to SMGs, Backpacks to Backpacks, Rifles to Rifles, etc), also keep that only the same category of attribute can be re-calibrated(Offensive to Offensive, Defensive to Defensive and Utility to Utility), same thing with talents(Active to Active, Passive to Passive). The only other change that would really be needed is the removal/adjustment of the re-calibration score to account/allow for more than one thing on an item being able to be re-calibrated. The limit for how high an individual stat can go should remain in place and be unchanged.
For example, you have a pretty awesome Petrov Defense Group Ops Armor chest piece. It's gear-score 500, has rolled with an active talent, two offensive attributes(Crit Chance and Crit Damage) and two defensive attributes(Bonus Armor and Total Health). You take the item to the re-calibration station and make several changes. The active talent(let's go with Berserk for the sake of this example) you change to Unstoppable Force. For the attributes; you change Crit Chance to Weapon Damage and Crit Damage to Headshot Damage, You decide to keep the Bonus Armor as is but change Total Health to Total Armor. So now you have a Petrov Defense Group Chest Piece that is PERFECT for your built and exactly what you wanted. Unstoppable Force as the active Talent, Weapon Damage and Headshot Damage as the Offensive Attributes and Bonus Armor and Total Armor as the Defensive Attributes. Of course the item can still be re-calibrated and improved on as you find items with higher and higher rolls.
The current price/resource cost scaling should remain the same and be unchanged. No reason to change it, would only make it needlessly more complicated. Like for example, changing it to scaling off each individual category rather than total re-calibrations(as it is now).
This would also go a long way into giving crafting resources more value. Currently, besides re-calibration there's really no reason to concern yourself with crafting resources other than creating items to donate to projects here and there. Crafting should always be relevant and viable option, in any game that includes it. That brings us to the second part of this one-two punch in giving players more 'control.' Please allow us to upgrade our crafting bench to max gear score and make 500(current cap) items(other than just exotics) and allow crafted items to be re-calibrated/used in re-calibration. Frankly, crafting right now seems a bit useless, which is a shame. These suggestions would solve that.
Lastly, if the max gear score is ever raised, there needs to be a way to upgrade the current gear/builds we've worked so hard on collected and fine-tuning or it'll leave many players with the feeling like all their time and effort was wasted and worthless. Of course this process should require super rare and difficult to get materials, like for example; new material only dropped by the end bosses on Heroic Missions. This would also give Heroic missions alot more replayablity. To be honest; after you complete them once for the personal challenge, there really isn't a reason to replay them; it is much more efficient to play Hard or Challenging missions for loot, for example.
But now what about the 'loot chase' if these changes were to be made? It's still there, nice and healthy. Players will always be chasing after those super high-rolled items, even more so with the new freedom with re-calibration. The loot chase will lose it's current downside; players will no longer feel that they are too heavily at the mercy of RNG to get that 'perfect item'(which currently; you have like a one in two million chance of actually getting and that's with STILL needing to run that item through re-calibration to change only one thing). With the new re-calibration, players will be constantly hungry for that next high rolled item(which are a whole lot easier to get instead of that 'perfect piece' they need for their build) so they can be continually upgrading their builds. No longer will players feel discouraged at never finding that perfect item they need for their build, no loss of motivation to play, no feelings of 'What's the point? 98% of the loot that drops for me is junk I either sell or decon' The new freedom with re-calibration would mean that potentially everything that drops could be useful in some way to a player's planned builds.
This is a great game, thank you Massive/Ubisoft for all of your hard work and dedication to giving us such an awesome game, and for always being willing to listen to and consider feedback from the community, it's what makes the Division so great. I feel the above suggested changes would turn Division 2 from a great game into an amazing one.